A little off topic, but I'm brewing a Grixis Draw-Go deck that utilizes Fatal Push as a test to see how much Grixis Draw-Go can do with the new tool (spoilering because it's off topic, but I'm mentioning it because this is how I would use Fatal Push in a way that Esper isn't really able to take advantage of):
No sideboard yet, still focusing on mainboard theory. The idea is to be 100% reactive until you can stall into powerhouse lategame cards that stem you into an eventual Blue Sun's for a lot. From that point on, closing out is elementary -- you simply cast some Burn, flash it back, and maybe stick a Keranos or a Batterskull. The best part is that your value creatures (Snappy and Gearhulk) can be recurred using the 2 Kommands in the list for inevitability. It's got an easy manabase, a possible proactive game plan (like Jeskai), but it's also very much a mix between Jeskai and Esper in that it has elements of both while also maintaining a healthy dose of raw card draw (meaning you don't fire your burn at their face until the very last minute when you've already stabilized, unlike Jeskai). The sideboard allows for Kommands, Fulminators/Crumbles, more Bolt effects, Counterflux, etc. along with still having access to discard+Extraction. I also can never deck due to Blue Sun's, and the deck even wants to play a 2nd copy of Blue Sun's anyways for its end-game (which is good if the first one gets countered).
Played a 3 round event again tonight, went 2-1. Same list with no changes.
R1 was abzan Coco, which should've been a a draw (and potentially a win if we had more time) except I knowingly got greedy with a Snapcaster in hand and let his Coco resolve in turns, which put a scavenging ooze in play and prevented me from stopping the red cap combo on t5. I had completely forgotten about scooby.
R2 was Mardu tokens with smuggler's copter + Bitterblossom
G1 I was able to stabilize and close the game quickly with a large secure the wastes and g2 he had very little going on after I extracted his lingering souls.
R3 was against ad nauseam, which I took 2-1. G1 I didn't have enough to stop the combo. G2 I won won the counter fight over lost legacy with dispel backup and he scoops. G3 I stop his 1st attempt at comboing and extract the nauseam with dispel backup. He was 1 mana short of casting nauseam in response so I took that one too. My sb is incredibly stacked against him.
That puts my overall paper record at 11-5-1, with the draw being a game I would've certainly won given the time. This list feels extremely powerful
and I plan on taking it to a gpt this weekend.
Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares. This is probably spam.
Do we have a final verdict on Disallow yet? I still think it's sweet, but I haven't picked up any yet.
I won't be playing any. I just don't think a 3 mana counter is playable unless it crosses a very high threshold. Disallow is a good counterspell, but it's just too expensive.
If i can find foils, ill probably pick them up, but i have no intention of playing them.
Anguished unmaking doesnt really see any play, and its the better three mana broad answer.
I'm asking because I could see myself playing them over my two Logic Knots (or maybe a singel command and something else). I have two Negate main and an increased amount of early creature removal with the recent addition of Fatal Push, so I feel I'm set for the early turns and not as dependent on having Logic Knot as a 2 mana counter. But I'm lacking the experience to really know if that's a reasonable call.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me.
I'm asking because I could see myself playing them over my two Logic Knots (or maybe a singel command and something else). I have two Negate main and an increased amount of early creature removal with the recent addition of Fatal Push, so I feel I'm set for the early turns and not as dependent on having Logic Knot as a 2 mana counter. But I'm lacking the experience to really know if that's a reasonable call.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me.
Disallow is a trap. It would only be playable if you could you all the effects at once. As it stands you are 2 for 1 yourself everytime you counter a triggered ability because you still have to use another card and more mana to actually kill the creature. That means less cards to answer the next threats and possibly less mana if to respond next turn if you had to verdict the newlamog. The only reasonable way to deal with Tron if you are not playing aggro or combo is to not let them get there. Using shadow of doubt to stop maps and other search effects will do more. Hell even stony silence stopping the maps, and mana rocks is better while you attack their hand. Most of all you should have some kind of land destruction plus extraction post board if it is a huge part of your meta. Also if you cut on your 2 mana counterspelks you will start losing to Karn on the draw.
Edit: A list like this is what I would suggest in a tron heavy meta.
I'm currently on 2 Rev / 2 Verdict, and because of space constraints I feel like I can only run a one-of White Sun's Zenith. I felt very comfortable going down to 2 Verdict because Push-Snap-Push is very good at keeping the board manageable and Spell Snare hits a lot of relevant creatures.
I think you can cut a Sphinx's Revelation. There's only so much time and deck space you can dedicate to cards that don't affect the board early on. 4 Esper Charm, 4 Think Twice, 2 Rev, 1 White Sun is a lot of cards that can bog down your early game space if you draw too many of them.
I think you can cut a Sphinx's Revelation. There's only so much time and deck space you can dedicate to cards that don't affect the board early on. 4 Esper Charm, 4 Think Twice, 2 Rev, 1 White Sun is a lot of cards that can bog down your early game space if you draw too many of them.
That's about what I figured. Opening on 2 also feels like getting 2 Prized Amalgam in your opening dredge hand: Maybe useful later, but dead weight for the first several turns.
You can cut one, but I'd say theres a better cut 99% of the time.
Your list looks alright as it is, I'm not sure what you'd want to cut the rev for, to be honest.
Gideon ally of zendikar is pretty weak in this deck. OG gideon or sun's champ are both stronger walkers to play.
This deck has a lot of top end, sometimes your opener is gonna be pretty heavy. We tend to be pretty good at living until we can cast those cards, assuming we keep an actually playable hand, which means it tends to work out in the end.
I'm very drawn to the idea of Secure the Wastes as an early game play, and its synergy with the 4 Snaps seems alluring. WSZ seems to only have late value. I'm also seeing all these recent Wafo-Tapa builds with 2 Secure and thinking there must be a reason for it.
I don't think people mulligan enough, particularly in game 1 scenarios. We have so much card advantage that a five card hand with relevant interaction still has plenty of game against most opposing 7 card hands, because 1-2 of their cards are probably blanks and we have a ton of card draw to pull ahead.
2. The value of secure the wastes is that it gets you on the board faster, and thus is BETTER than WSZ in some of our harder matchups--that's what makes it attractive. It's NOT the better win condition. I've explained this before: WSZ is the better card if all you care about is the minimal deckbuilding investment into actually having inevitability to win the game. the STW/Snapcaster plan is better if you want to have a win condition that also has utility at stabilizing the board or racing when required, which WSZ is not good at.
Also, new trick from a game against blue moon today: I tapped both of my plains, then used all three of my islands to cryptic-bounce a plains and replay it to make the third white to main-phase a white sun's zenith through blood moon. Yes, I won the game with those two cats.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I'm still not quite happy with the BUG teachings build I'm working on. It's been one of my pet decks for a good long while, and I just haven't figured out how to make it work well quite yet. abrupt decay + fatal push + tribute to hunger + slaughter pact is a hell of a removal suite though.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I'm basically in the same boat.
If i owned zen fetches and damnations I'd probably play bug teachings at fnms, and be able to hone the list a bit more than I do, but such is life.
Also, new trick from a game against blue moon today: I tapped both of my plains, then used all three of my islands to cryptic-bounce a plains and replay it to make the third white to main-phase a white sun's zenith through blood moon. Yes, I won the game with those two cats.
I had a similar trick yesterday against eldrazi, cryptic counter a smasher, bounce my own island to revolt a fatal push on TKS. Not something I would normally do as it puts you back a land (I tanked for a long time on this play), but I didn't have another revolt enabler and untapping to an empty board was worth it.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me. [/quote]
I know this is the Esper thread but if you are facing a ton of Tron or Eldrazi, have you considered playing straight U/W. The current lists are running 3-4 main board spreading seas and 4 Main board Ghost Quarters, the Tron matchup feels great to me.
Some notes on card choices and in testing so far:
,
I basically wanted to make a control deck with the anti-aggro removal suite of classic UWR draw-go, the card draw and hard counter late game prowess of Esper Control, and the notorious haymaker of Grixis in Cruel Ultimatum. I then thought, I might as well go all the way add make it a bona-fide 5 colour list. I thought Life from the Loam would be the best Green addition to the list to help fight land destruction strategies which is an obvious weakness of the deck, as well as setting up some Tec Edge locks. I've thought about going Mystical Teachings styles and trimming all the 4-of's down to 3-of's and adding stuff in place like a single: Blessed Alliance, Crackling Doom, Kolaghan's Command, Spell Snare, SPhinx's Revelation, but I'm finding in testing, the best way for consistency is redundancy, and just playing a redundant burn removal package, that either acts as early removal against creatures, or go's to the face against Combo is better for overall consistency. I might revisit a teachings package later, but for now, just playing the best parts of each shard, and more of it seems to be the way forward as much as I'd love to get all fancy with silver bullets.
Mana Base: Research has shown most semi-successful 4 colour control decks in modern run a split of 8 fetches to 7 shocks on average. I think Wafo played a 4c deck with 8 fetches and 6 shocks, but Jonathan and Travis both played an 8/7 fetch/shock ratio at the most as too much damage defeats the purpose of playing 4 colours in the first place. I wanted 4 White and 4 Red fetches for turn 1 Bolt/Path and turn 2 RW Helix. I wanted 2 Black fetches for Swamp to make up Esper Charm against Blood Moon. I wanted 1 Green fetch for my only Green card in the deck, Life from the Loam. I wanted 6 Blue fetches since Blue is my primary colour, but had to make do with 5 since I need the 1 Green fetch for LftL.
I've gone with the 7 shocks split like Travis and Jonathan. I originally had 2 Steam Vents and 2 Hallowed Fountain, but in testing, the amount of times I had 2 Watery Grave in play, and had a Cruel Ultimatum in hand, then drew couldn't fetch another Black source was a very common scenario. I've tried to rectify this by adding just the 1 more fetchable Black source in Godless Shrine, and taking out 1 Hallowed Fountain. I also cut 1 Steam Vents for the 1 Stomping Ground for Life from the Loam. This drops my Blue sources from 21U to 19 U, which hasn't been too bad so far, I think Corey's Grixis deck runs 19 U too since he's on a lower land count and watching streams of him, it hasn't been too bad to make up Cryptic Command.
Basics-wise, I've chosen 1 Basic Mountain for turn 1 Bolt. 1 Island, 1 Swamp, 1 Plains is to make up Esper Charm against Blood Moon as in I'm attempting to fight a resolved Blood Moon with Esper Charm, rather than overload it with more basics. I kind of can't overload basics juggling 5 colours including Cryptic and Cruel too so this is the best I could come up with. No Green basic as it's just not needed.
4 Creeping Tar Pit because I need more Black for Cruel Ultimatum, plus the low activation cost is a boon. 1 Tectonic Edge to act as a land destruction "spell" against nasty stuff game 1 like Academy Ruins, Emeria etc.
Cruel Ultimatum over Sphinx's Revelation: I wanted to find room for Sphinx's Revelation but I think Cruel Ult works better with the burn em out plan. I think it's better positioned against decks like Bant Eldrazi, Eldrazi Tron, BW tokens and other midrange good stuff since it is an extra removal spell on top of wiping out their hand. Has been pretty brutal in testing against the Eldrazi decks, even against standard GR/GW Tron decks, countering their threats and wiping out their card they searched up with Sanctum of Ugin is devastating.
Life from the Loam: Was the last addition and the "cutest" addition to the deck. Mainly wanted to shore up a weakness against Death and Taxes decks and thought a misers LftL could be a nice touch. Additionally, it can fuel a tectonic edge lock plan myself in the grindiest of match ups, while also having fringe uses against decks like 8 rack where you can "draw 3." This is the only Green card in the deck. This was originally a Negate, but in theory crafting, thought it would be a cool addition to the deck so I'm going to stick with Loam for the time being.
Lightning Helix: I think is essential. It's a card that is excellent against Burn and helps alleviate my mana base. Is basically 4 extra Bolts that just go to the face against combo decks and control mirrors. With 4 Bolt, 4 Helix, 4 Electrolyze, 4 Snaps burning slower decks out is a legitimate path I walked on a number of occasions.
Esper Charm and Electrolyze serve as the draw engines of the deck.
2 Path 2 Merciless Eviction. Was originally 3 Path 1 Merciless eviction but felt too soft to wider strategies. I find the bulk 1-2 mana burn spells and Electrolyze slows down the fastest of aggro decks, that I don't need to get to a Verdict or Bust scenario. The life gain on Helix helps a lot here. I basically can stall quite well and saw Merciless Eviction and thought it offered a lot to a control deck like this as a way to deal with anything main board, even Dredge. I'll keep testing a 2/2 split but if I find I'm in need of another Path, I'll just go back to a 3/1 split favouring Path.
Sideboard is still in Flux. Mainly looking at hosers such as Stony Silence, Rest in Peace and some discard spells and maybe an Engineered Explosives or 2, maybe not.
So far, mana base hasn't been too bad pain wise, but sequencing lands hurts my brain a bit still. The list is probably a lot too crazy, but trying to mix it up while attempting to stay competitive at the same time.
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3x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
3x Island
1x Swamp
1x Mountain
4x Fatal Push
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Terminate
Counters (10)
2x Spell Snare
3x Logic Knot
1x Negate
4x Cryptic Command
Wincons (8)
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Batterskull
2x Torrential Gearhulk
4x Think Twice
2x Kolaghan's Command
2x Blue Sun's Zenith
No sideboard yet, still focusing on mainboard theory. The idea is to be 100% reactive until you can stall into powerhouse lategame cards that stem you into an eventual Blue Sun's for a lot. From that point on, closing out is elementary -- you simply cast some Burn, flash it back, and maybe stick a Keranos or a Batterskull. The best part is that your value creatures (Snappy and Gearhulk) can be recurred using the 2 Kommands in the list for inevitability. It's got an easy manabase, a possible proactive game plan (like Jeskai), but it's also very much a mix between Jeskai and Esper in that it has elements of both while also maintaining a healthy dose of raw card draw (meaning you don't fire your burn at their face until the very last minute when you've already stabilized, unlike Jeskai). The sideboard allows for Kommands, Fulminators/Crumbles, more Bolt effects, Counterflux, etc. along with still having access to discard+Extraction. I also can never deck due to Blue Sun's, and the deck even wants to play a 2nd copy of Blue Sun's anyways for its end-game (which is good if the first one gets countered).
Thoughts?
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
R1 was abzan Coco, which should've been a a draw (and potentially a win if we had more time) except I knowingly got greedy with a Snapcaster in hand and let his Coco resolve in turns, which put a scavenging ooze in play and prevented me from stopping the red cap combo on t5. I had completely forgotten about scooby.
R2 was Mardu tokens with smuggler's copter + Bitterblossom
G1 I was able to stabilize and close the game quickly with a large secure the wastes and g2 he had very little going on after I extracted his lingering souls.
R3 was against ad nauseam, which I took 2-1. G1 I didn't have enough to stop the combo. G2 I won won the counter fight over lost legacy with dispel backup and he scoops. G3 I stop his 1st attempt at comboing and extract the nauseam with dispel backup. He was 1 mana short of casting nauseam in response so I took that one too. My sb is incredibly stacked against him.
That puts my overall paper record at 11-5-1, with the draw being a game I would've certainly won given the time. This list feels extremely powerful
and I plan on taking it to a gpt this weekend.
URURxUR
UWUWxUW
I won't be playing any. I just don't think a 3 mana counter is playable unless it crosses a very high threshold. Disallow is a good counterspell, but it's just too expensive.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
Anguished unmaking doesnt really see any play, and its the better three mana broad answer.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me.
Disallow is a trap. It would only be playable if you could you all the effects at once. As it stands you are 2 for 1 yourself everytime you counter a triggered ability because you still have to use another card and more mana to actually kill the creature. That means less cards to answer the next threats and possibly less mana if to respond next turn if you had to verdict the newlamog. The only reasonable way to deal with Tron if you are not playing aggro or combo is to not let them get there. Using shadow of doubt to stop maps and other search effects will do more. Hell even stony silence stopping the maps, and mana rocks is better while you attack their hand. Most of all you should have some kind of land destruction plus extraction post board if it is a huge part of your meta. Also if you cut on your 2 mana counterspelks you will start losing to Karn on the draw.
Edit: A list like this is what I would suggest in a tron heavy meta.
2 Snapcaster Mage
Sorceries: 3
3 Supreme Verdict
Instants:
4 Esper Charm
4 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Cryptic Command
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Remand
2 Logic Knot
2 Spell Snare
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 White Sun Zenith
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
2 Ghost Quarters
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Thoughtseize
2 Negate
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Stony Silence
2 Engineered Explosives
You will lose points in slme matchups like burn but tron will be much easier if that is what your meta calls for.
Esper Control.dec, Built with Decked Builder
http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/272527
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells:30
4 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
2 Spell Snare
3 Logic Knot
2 Negate
4 Think Twice
4 Esper Charm
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 White Sun's Zenith
4 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mystic Gate
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Steam Vents
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Dispel
2 Path to Exile
2 Thoughtseize
2 Celestial Purge
2 Runed Halo
2 Stony Silence
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Crumble to Dust
I'm currently on 2 Rev / 2 Verdict, and because of space constraints I feel like I can only run a one-of White Sun's Zenith. I felt very comfortable going down to 2 Verdict because Push-Snap-Push is very good at keeping the board manageable and Spell Snare hits a lot of relevant creatures.
Edit: I also think one Gideon, Ally of Zendikar might be worth a shot. Yay? Nay?
That's about what I figured. Opening on 2 also feels like getting 2 Prized Amalgam in your opening dredge hand: Maybe useful later, but dead weight for the first several turns.
Your list looks alright as it is, I'm not sure what you'd want to cut the rev for, to be honest.
Gideon ally of zendikar is pretty weak in this deck. OG gideon or sun's champ are both stronger walkers to play.
This deck has a lot of top end, sometimes your opener is gonna be pretty heavy. We tend to be pretty good at living until we can cast those cards, assuming we keep an actually playable hand, which means it tends to work out in the end.
I don't think people mulligan enough, particularly in game 1 scenarios. We have so much card advantage that a five card hand with relevant interaction still has plenty of game against most opposing 7 card hands, because 1-2 of their cards are probably blanks and we have a ton of card draw to pull ahead.
2. The value of secure the wastes is that it gets you on the board faster, and thus is BETTER than WSZ in some of our harder matchups--that's what makes it attractive. It's NOT the better win condition. I've explained this before: WSZ is the better card if all you care about is the minimal deckbuilding investment into actually having inevitability to win the game. the STW/Snapcaster plan is better if you want to have a win condition that also has utility at stabilizing the board or racing when required, which WSZ is not good at.
Also, new trick from a game against blue moon today: I tapped both of my plains, then used all three of my islands to cryptic-bounce a plains and replay it to make the third white to main-phase a white sun's zenith through blood moon. Yes, I won the game with those two cats.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I'm basically in the same boat.
If i owned zen fetches and damnations I'd probably play bug teachings at fnms, and be able to hone the list a bit more than I do, but such is life.
I would cut a Snapcaster or Negate if there was other stuff you wanted to add in, tbh.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
I had a similar trick yesterday against eldrazi, cryptic counter a smasher, bounce my own island to revolt a fatal push on TKS. Not something I would normally do as it puts you back a land (I tanked for a long time on this play), but I didn't have another revolt enabler and untapping to an empty board was worth it.
It was basically "Counter target spell and return target player to the losers' corner."
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me. [/quote]
I know this is the Esper thread but if you are facing a ton of Tron or Eldrazi, have you considered playing straight U/W. The current lists are running 3-4 main board spreading seas and 4 Main board Ghost Quarters, the Tron matchup feels great to me.
4 Snapcaster Mage
Sorceries: 5
2 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Merciless Eviction
1 Life from the Loam
Insants: 25
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
3 Logic Knot
4 Electrolyze
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Windswept Heath
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
2 Watery Grave
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
Some notes on card choices and in testing so far:
,
I basically wanted to make a control deck with the anti-aggro removal suite of classic UWR draw-go, the card draw and hard counter late game prowess of Esper Control, and the notorious haymaker of Grixis in Cruel Ultimatum. I then thought, I might as well go all the way add make it a bona-fide 5 colour list. I thought Life from the Loam would be the best Green addition to the list to help fight land destruction strategies which is an obvious weakness of the deck, as well as setting up some Tec Edge locks. I've thought about going Mystical Teachings styles and trimming all the 4-of's down to 3-of's and adding stuff in place like a single: Blessed Alliance, Crackling Doom, Kolaghan's Command, Spell Snare, SPhinx's Revelation, but I'm finding in testing, the best way for consistency is redundancy, and just playing a redundant burn removal package, that either acts as early removal against creatures, or go's to the face against Combo is better for overall consistency. I might revisit a teachings package later, but for now, just playing the best parts of each shard, and more of it seems to be the way forward as much as I'd love to get all fancy with silver bullets.
Mana Base: Research has shown most semi-successful 4 colour control decks in modern run a split of 8 fetches to 7 shocks on average. I think Wafo played a 4c deck with 8 fetches and 6 shocks, but Jonathan and Travis both played an 8/7 fetch/shock ratio at the most as too much damage defeats the purpose of playing 4 colours in the first place. I wanted 4 White and 4 Red fetches for turn 1 Bolt/Path and turn 2 RW Helix. I wanted 2 Black fetches for Swamp to make up Esper Charm against Blood Moon. I wanted 1 Green fetch for my only Green card in the deck, Life from the Loam. I wanted 6 Blue fetches since Blue is my primary colour, but had to make do with 5 since I need the 1 Green fetch for LftL.
I've gone with the 7 shocks split like Travis and Jonathan. I originally had 2 Steam Vents and 2 Hallowed Fountain, but in testing, the amount of times I had 2 Watery Grave in play, and had a Cruel Ultimatum in hand, then drew couldn't fetch another Black source was a very common scenario. I've tried to rectify this by adding just the 1 more fetchable Black source in Godless Shrine, and taking out 1 Hallowed Fountain. I also cut 1 Steam Vents for the 1 Stomping Ground for Life from the Loam. This drops my Blue sources from 21U to 19 U, which hasn't been too bad so far, I think Corey's Grixis deck runs 19 U too since he's on a lower land count and watching streams of him, it hasn't been too bad to make up Cryptic Command.
Basics-wise, I've chosen 1 Basic Mountain for turn 1 Bolt. 1 Island, 1 Swamp, 1 Plains is to make up Esper Charm against Blood Moon as in I'm attempting to fight a resolved Blood Moon with Esper Charm, rather than overload it with more basics. I kind of can't overload basics juggling 5 colours including Cryptic and Cruel too so this is the best I could come up with. No Green basic as it's just not needed.
4 Creeping Tar Pit because I need more Black for Cruel Ultimatum, plus the low activation cost is a boon. 1 Tectonic Edge to act as a land destruction "spell" against nasty stuff game 1 like Academy Ruins, Emeria etc.
Cruel Ultimatum over Sphinx's Revelation: I wanted to find room for Sphinx's Revelation but I think Cruel Ult works better with the burn em out plan. I think it's better positioned against decks like Bant Eldrazi, Eldrazi Tron, BW tokens and other midrange good stuff since it is an extra removal spell on top of wiping out their hand. Has been pretty brutal in testing against the Eldrazi decks, even against standard GR/GW Tron decks, countering their threats and wiping out their card they searched up with Sanctum of Ugin is devastating.
Life from the Loam: Was the last addition and the "cutest" addition to the deck. Mainly wanted to shore up a weakness against Death and Taxes decks and thought a misers LftL could be a nice touch. Additionally, it can fuel a tectonic edge lock plan myself in the grindiest of match ups, while also having fringe uses against decks like 8 rack where you can "draw 3." This is the only Green card in the deck. This was originally a Negate, but in theory crafting, thought it would be a cool addition to the deck so I'm going to stick with Loam for the time being.
Lightning Helix: I think is essential. It's a card that is excellent against Burn and helps alleviate my mana base. Is basically 4 extra Bolts that just go to the face against combo decks and control mirrors. With 4 Bolt, 4 Helix, 4 Electrolyze, 4 Snaps burning slower decks out is a legitimate path I walked on a number of occasions.
Esper Charm and Electrolyze serve as the draw engines of the deck.
2 Path 2 Merciless Eviction. Was originally 3 Path 1 Merciless eviction but felt too soft to wider strategies. I find the bulk 1-2 mana burn spells and Electrolyze slows down the fastest of aggro decks, that I don't need to get to a Verdict or Bust scenario. The life gain on Helix helps a lot here. I basically can stall quite well and saw Merciless Eviction and thought it offered a lot to a control deck like this as a way to deal with anything main board, even Dredge. I'll keep testing a 2/2 split but if I find I'm in need of another Path, I'll just go back to a 3/1 split favouring Path.
Sideboard is still in Flux. Mainly looking at hosers such as Stony Silence, Rest in Peace and some discard spells and maybe an Engineered Explosives or 2, maybe not.
So far, mana base hasn't been too bad pain wise, but sequencing lands hurts my brain a bit still. The list is probably a lot too crazy, but trying to mix it up while attempting to stay competitive at the same time.